a child's garden of...dirt
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 9:47PM On Facebook the other day, Dee posted a link to an article about a play garden. George likes to mess around in our fallow raised bed, though between him and the chickens this has proven a bad pastime for the growing season. Our family plot will be locked down with chicken wire this year, high enough to keep a curious toddler and his three clucking cohorts at bay until their "assistance" is needed, but I wanted George to have a place to grow things of his own, to dig and hunt for worms and shovel away to his heart's content. I also wanted it to have some sensory components aside from the squishy mud, and The Imagination Tree's post about their sweet little garden gave me some inspiration.
Ordinarily, I am not one to recommend shopping at the dollar store, as I usually find thrift shops more fruitful and less, well, crappy, but when you've got about 20 solid, no-cry-guarantee minutes to get supplies for both a garden and dinner, you do whatcha gotta do. At the dollar store, I found:
- a pinwheel
- a muffin tin for mudcake making
- a mat to kneel on
- a bamboo windchime
And at Home Depot, which shares the parking lot with the dollar store -- another place I would not ordinarily discuss patronizing, as there is a lovely local hardware shop and there are myriad pleasant little nurseries around -- I got:
- a mint plant
- a lavender plant
- two colors of posies
- cedar edging
At home, we already had a little trowel, a shovel and some terra cotta pots. I found some rocks and stones in the yard and piled them in one corner of the garden.
I used some of the soil from our raised bed, as it needs to be supplemented anyway, and made a large-ish dirt pile in the hopes that George might not dig up the plants. The rocks and stones, I imagine, will gather some critters underneath (looking for and identifying bugs is currently a hot hobby around here), and a blackberry branch that needs to be pruned back is holding up the wind chime whose cheapness is, honestly, rather obvious. The dull clinking adds something nice to the space, though; I'm glad I thought to buy it. Already, the scents of the lavender and mint waft around when you walk by...especially when a certain hapless gardener is accidentally crushing the plants with his galoshes.
An hour of this morning was spent playing in the new garden, a good portion of which "makin' dinosaur fossils!" with his little raptor. Sometimes I am confounded over the fact that two years ago, my full-sentence-speaking, archaeology-interested child was this small and drooly:
His sister enjoyed the view from her little coccoon, and maybe she'll be big enough to dig around a little, herself, by the time summer's really here. Because summer doesn't really get here until August, anyway.
Happy spring!
Reader Comments (4)
Love it! Didn't think to check the dollar store for some items. Must do that today.
I love how that turned out! It's super simple, but just well-equipped enough to be enticing. I've been thinking about outdoor play space since we're moving someplace with a proper yard for the first time. This is just the inspiration I needed to start a proper list of ideas. Thanks, Stefanie!
Love this idea! I need something for four kids (not all mine) to do while I garden. Brilliant.
Hi there - my name is Jenny and I blog at Let the Children Play. I'm currently writing an ebook called Natural Backyard Playscapes and I would love your permission to use your top photo in this post in the section on Dirt to share with readers how others have provided for dirt play in their backyards. Of course I would credit you and provide a link back here to your blog. Thanks for your consideration, Jenny theplayfiles@gmail.com